Tokyo: 3 weeks in a row! Now, its time to say "good-bye" and say "Hello, CHINA!"

Last week was a nice week :)

I will start with last Thursday. After school, I enjoyed going to Art Club with the four students that makeup art club! We were goofing around in the hallway and also in the art room! My "stained glass" was ready and we played with it (pictures below). I stayed until 4:30 and then went to the pool for a swim. Below are Ayano, Yoshie, Kenta, Tsukasa, & me! ...above
down low...

Hinode Art Room!

Playing with my stained glass. Ayano about to eat it as Yoshie and Tsukasa look on in amusement! Ha Ha!

Kenta calling someone because I'm about to eat the cupcake on my nose!

After my swim, I ended up with a bit of a party at my house! I had John, Andrew, Erin, Zac, and Hitomi over to my home. Zac and Hitomi are new characters in my blog in this story of my life. Zac lives up north in Hitachi and Hitomi lives in Choshi which is an hour south of me! So, they are far apart but everyone came to my house, we went to the grocery store, and then cooked a huge feast!

Meat balls that Hitomi and Erin mixed together!

Hitomi and I from Zac's perspective - WOW we are short! or rather WOW he is tall!!!

I offered Zac my pink apron :) lookin' good. Ha ha.

Angelic - I think not!

Chow time!!!

Zac made two different pasta sauces and pasta. We enjoyed funfetti cake too! I had bought a box when I went home and we had that for dessert. Hitomi and Andrew helped Erin and I finish the last of our JET Japanese tests. Test # 6 is finished for the most part and I will send it in this afternoon!!! I will now have a completion of beginning Japanese and receive a certificate that I can slap on my resume - nice!

I had company until about midnight and then went to sleep!

Friday, was a decent day had four classes and then the afternoon free. I had ikebana in the afternoon and had to rush my lesson just a bit because I had an enkai.

My 7th Ikebana lesson!

The enkai was with my Board of Education. There were over 50 people there. Speeches were made and awards were awarded (John & I = clueless). We just smiled and then the kampai came! Kampai = cheers in Japanese. After the kampai, we began eating. Many people came around and poured us drinks and chatted with us. This is customary of enkais. We were sitting on the ground with delicious food in front of us. We talked and laughed for a good 3 hours...

all the food lined up ready to eat...but first we must have several speeches, awards, and a kampai!

Our new supervisor! Mr. Ikeda :)

Our old supervisor - Mr. Yamada

Itako Buds!!

Shin & John. Shin's English is quite good!

...it was then off to the 2nd party. I had not yet been to a "2nd" party after an enkai. I joined several Japanese people connected to the Board of Education and we went to karaoke. I had a blast! We were singing and drinking red wine. It was the most Japanese I have spoken since living here. I love John but it was nice not having him there because I had to really speak Japanese - or try anyway. I was there until about 12:00 and then I got a taxi with my supervisor back to my apartment and then he went on to his home. It was such a fun experience other than I had to wake up at 7:00 for school...ugh.

Board of Education members!

Haruko, Me, & Shin!! Karaoke!

On Saturday, we had PTA here at school. I had to come in after a night of mayhem (ha ha ha) and teach four classes - it was rough. Then in the afternoon I had to sit in a meeting for an hour and a half not understanding a single thing that was being discussed. So, needless to say Saturday was a rough day at school.

Saturday after school, I went home quickly, changed clothes, and was off to Tokyo for the evening. I had found this really cute restaurant online and wanted to know if Annelyse and Chika wanted to join me! So we met at Tiki Tiki in Shinjuku at 6:00. I was running late from school and didn't make it until about 6:45. We stayed until 8:30 and enjoyed many tapas like meals along with really cute, tropical cocktails! A must go to if anyone visits me! We were also able to enjoy two different Hawaiian/Polynesian dances.

rainy day in Tokyo

Hawaiian dancers

my cute cocktail :)

Annelyse and I!!! Can't wait for CHINA!

Chika and her cute hummingbird drink!

adorable!

Polynesian Dance

The bathroom :) This place was great!

Opening

bar

After dinner, we walked around Shinjuku for a long while before I said good-bye to them and met up with other friends in Ebisu to party at UNIT in Nakameguro/Ebisu area. While I was waiting for the other crowd to meet me in Ebisu, I found this cute, chic, little bar/restaurant called Medusa across from Ebisu Sta.

Medusa - real jellyfish! How cool!!!!

Champagne

I went in to enjoy a drink before the others joined me :) I met the others about midnight and we were off to UNIT to see Hash and others DJ. I was able to get everyone in for 2500 yen as opposed to the 3500 yen. I signed us up on the guest list prior to us going.

I personally had a great time hearing various DJs. Tokyo is definitely a different type of place in terms of clubbing. It is way different then the western world. It is a nice difference, just different. I enjoyed watching Hash DJ and seeing the others too. Half of our group wasn't too happy and decided to leave which was totally fine. I respect that others like different things and to be honest it was just fine. I had a blast with Cat, Adam, and Rene. They are fellow Ibaraki JETs. We danced until day break and had breakfast before heading off in our various directions.

Hash DJing the night away!

Cat and I!

Dawn has broken but we aren't done yet!! Red Bar then Breakfast!

Rene at Red Bar

Wow, we were up all night! Crazy kids we are!!! Enjoying a small breakfast at dare I say McDonalds - I actually dispise the place!

Being in Tokyo is really fun for me. I am really beginning to sort things out above ground as well as underground. I enjoy being able to walk place to place as opposed to taking the train. Taking cabs is good because I can see how to get place to place above ground. I am still loving Tokyo more and more.

I am glad to be making friends in Tokyo because it gives me more options for hanging out. With JET its about half and half with who all goes to Tokyo and who doesn't. I am trying to be more open with meeting people and accepting of others - honestly, its just really hard. I am very happy with the few very good friends I have made.

With that said, I am getting sad about Annelyse leaving (sorry Annelyse, I know your reading thing). I absolutely love this girl and know we will be friends forever. She really gets me and I really get her. We make great travel buddies and are great companions. I hope that in 10 or 15 years time once we have families and what not that we can make plans to travel somewhere again. She is fantastic and I am really going to miss her next year. I haven't clicked with anyone quite like Annelyse here. It is a shame so I am currently on the search for her replacement :) hee hee.

So, Sunday was very nice. I made it home by about 9 AM and had a nice shower and went to sleep for about 7 hours. I enjoyed the evening by running a few errands, a bubble bath, and watching Sex and the City. I went to sleep about 1 because I actually didn't have school yesterday since I had to work on Saturday.

Right before sunset out running errands.

The karaoke bar I went to on Friday night with the BoE members!

Yesterday was quite nice. I woke up at 10:30 :) I spoke with dad and mom for a bit. They were watching Mona Lisa's smile. We spoke for about an hour - it was nice as always. Dad filled me in on this Swine Flu - interesting to say the least. Hope we are not effected, as always we will just see. After speaking with dad and mom, I got ready for the day and was off in the search of Geeta, an Indian Restaurant in Kashima. With luck and a bit of searching, I finally found it. It is truly run by Indian people and I had a nice lunch special of 3 different curries, rice, salad, and naan. It was nice to have a different type of food for a change :) After lunch, I went in search of a nice spot of beach. I found a nice spot and laid in the sun for a bit and read and listened to music for a bit. I then went driving again as when I was in search of the Indian Restaurant I found an American style restaurant. I stopped in for a shake to see what this place was all about. It is a really fun diner style restaurant. The owner was really cool. He speaks some English so it was nice to have an English/Japanese conversation. I stayed about 45 minutes and then went home for a nap and to prepare for a motorcycle ride with Andrew. Andrew and I went for a ride along the coast to Hasaki and then turned around and went for sushi at genki!!

My delicious Indian lunch!

Beaches of Kashima

Starting to get cloudy. I really wanted to take the drift wood but it was too far into the ground and I couldn't lift it :(

The American style restaurant that I found! Their menu looks great!

The gorgeous sunset yesterday. The sky looked like it was on fire!! :)

Today has been an okay day. I was awoken this morning at 6:40 AM to a pretty big earthquake. I had a few things fall but nothing major. I am still getting used to them! I was looking forward to having a majority of the day free to prepare for my vacation to China tomorrow. However, I ended up having 2 extra classes today which has given me hardly any prep time :(

I am really looking forward to the next two weeks. I will be traveling with Annelyse to China. We are first starting out in Hong Kong and staying with Becky, one of my good friends from LFC. We will have so much fun there enjoying the modern day city. We will be there April 29 - May 2nd. We will then fly from Hong Kong to Shanghai and stay from May 2nd to May 5th. I am really looking forward to Shanghai. Shanghai has many places that seem like they scream "Lauren Parker" so I am really looking forward to the French Concession and The Bund. We do not have friends in Shanghai so we will be staying at the Sofitel on Nanjing Road. We will then fly to Beijing May 5th and return to Japan on the 10th. We will be staying with my really good friend Jimmy, another LFC friend and also be visiting with Annelyse's uncle who is also living in Beijing. Jimmy's birthday is on the 5th so we will be able to help him celebrate which is really exciting!

I will be away from email and definitely this blog for the next two weeks. Be looking forward to updates on May 10th! I will post stories and pictures that day assuming I have Internet when I get home (you all know my Internet is sometimes screwy). I am really looking forward to this experience as I would have never really thought to visit China before moving to Japan. I will miss you all. Feel free to comment when and where you can! Looking forward to sharing my stories and pictures with you!

Until next time...I will love and miss you all! Hugs!!!

"Advice To My 21 [23]- YEAR-OLD SELF..."

I was reading an article in the March 2009 issue of ELLE...

I liked what this woman had to say about herself now that she is 38 years old and looking back at herself when she was 21 and the advice she would have given herself...

Raffaell Barker, novelist:
'In no particular order, here are some things I wish I'd known when I was you: you will forget brilliant ideas, so write them down; you don't have to try so hard, you can take a day off sometimes and just have fun - it's allowed; Michael Van Clarke does the best haircuts in London; saying 'I'm sorry' matters; saying 'I love you' matters more; a homemade cake is a gift of love; walk tall; speak low and wear good underwear.'

Louise Wener, novelist and ex-rock star:
'Stop worrying so much. Embrace the risks. Have the courage to celebrate your mistakes. It will hardly matter which road you take, as long as you roar along it with passion and at full speed. Listen to more David Bowie: 'Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years'.

Jane Fallon, novelist and TV writer/producer:
'I wish i'd realised my life wasn't going to be over when I turned 30; that there'd still be time to achieve what I wanted; that it wasn't too late to start learning the piano or anything else. I could be proficient in just about everything now.'

Susan Ward Davies, ELLE travel editor:
'Never go to one party when you can go to three. And if you love someone, tell them. It's better to risk a moment's embarrassment than live a life of regret.'

As I sit here or stand here I am glad to gain advice and knowledge from people looking back on their lives and what they had wished they had done. Gives me the confidence to keep going forth and reaching for my dreams.




I.LOVE.MY.LIFE.

(I Sometimes Think) TOKYO Is More So My Home Than ITAKO! =D

Yet another great weekend was had here in Japan!

Friday started out by me going into Tokyo. I took the day off on Friday because I needed to go get my passport from the Chinese Embassy. I arrived in Tokyo around 10:00 and headed over to Roppongi Hills where I paid an obscene amount of money for my Visa - $150, ugh. Oh well, I've decided it helps cover some nights in a hotel that I will not be spending thanks to Becky and Jimmy letting us stay in their homes!! I then had to come back to Itako for a doctors appointment at 2:00.

After my appointment, I ran around doing a few things for Friday evening. It was John and Kate's birthday on Friday and Erin's on Saturday. I bought a cake and had their names written on it! I then took it to Kaiya, the Italian/French restaurant, to have it be a surprise for everyone. I did not tell John that I was inviting others. He assumed that it would just be him and I at dinner. I had Erin and Kate meet me earlier at my home and I dropped them at the restaurant first. Then went and got John. Aki and one of the new teachers at Itako 1st joined us! So it was a nice surprise party for everyone :) We enjoyed great food and company. After dinner, Erin, Kate and I went to Karaoke in Itako. There is a BIG, BRIGHT Karaoke place that I have been a little skeptical to go but it actual was really fun! I am glad that we went. After Karaoke, we came back to my house and watched Twilight. It was then time for sleep as we were getting up early to go into TOKYO!

John and I at KAIYA

John about to enjoy his birthday dinner!
OUR AMAZING HAMBURG STEAK DINNER!!

John and his Itako 1st teachers!!
Erin, Kate, and I - BIrthday Girls!

The Birthday Cake I bought everyone! It was so delicious!!

Ta Da - YUM!

Aki and I!!!!!!!! I love Aki!!

At Karaoke in Itako after dinner!
On Saturday, Erin went ahead around 9:30. I could not be bothered to leave THHAAAT early on a Saturday morning. Kate and I took our time getting ready and ate breakfast then headed on down. I was dying to go to this little place called Daikanyama. I had read so many fantastic things about it online. It has a very European feel to it with all the various boutiques and cafes - right up my alley! Kate and I walked around and asked for directions to Cafe Michelangelo. Great cafe it was! The interior was so Europe and absolutely adorable. We enjoyed a set lunch with soup and sandwiches - they were delicious.

Cafe Michaelangelo in Daikanyama

Outside view later in the evening :) So European!
After lunch we walked around and took a look in most of the boutiques. I bought some really cute black summer sandals (good for the beach) and a sench belt. I am in the midst of finding some good accessories. One such accessory is a fedora hat - I think this will take me a while but I think they are just so cute.

Kate and I trying on fedoras in Daikanyama - lovin' them! Erin met up with us around 4:00. We decided it was time for some coffee and cake. We found a neat little cafe called Dessert Bar F. The woman runs the cafe herself and we ended up ordering the dessert course - expensive but well worth it! It consisted of a small cheese cake, a lemon tart with berries and sweet basil sauce, and a homemade chocolate chip cookie. I also decided to do the wine pairing - heaven on your tongue.

One of the three course desserts I enjoyed! Lemon tart with berries and sweet basil sauce.
One thing in my life that I have decided to do is start enjoying the small (and the big) spoils of life. I enjoy good food and good wine - so why deprive myself?! We only get one life right and if we are constantly worried about money we don't get to enjoy these sweet things. I have decided that spending a little extra to make myself blissfully happy is completely and totally 100% worth my money!
After this glorious bakery/ dessert bar we continued to shop around in the boutiques and simply enjoy what was around us. We goofed around in stores and took pictures almost everywhere as you can see below! It was a great time :)

In the midst of walking around, I saw this shop with a lady trying on wedding dresses. I loved this. As much as I complain about my friends getting married now (deep down, I am waiting for my turn but really can't wait! - mixed emotions)
I really loved this window display

Playing around in Daikanyama. This was the center of an shopping center.

...Erin...

...Then we played in the park

After shopping around both window and actual, we were off to Shibuya to meet up with Hash to go to dinner. Hash had a great place in mind but unfortunately it was closed so we enjoyed a Turkish restaurant in the basement of this same restaurant. We enjoyed humus and other delicious Mediterranean foods. I swear I could move to the Mediterranean and just be so happy.

Dinner was followed with the decision to stay up all night as apposed to coming back to Itako early or getting a hotel. We went to various lounges (3 to be exact) all in Daikanyama/Nakameguro area. The crowds in these bars are very artsy chic. These people have interesting stories on why they are in Tokyo - great stories though. It is inspiring me to continue with my art studies and simply become more artsy. It is fun :) The night was spent drinking red wine and dancing away... Charry blossoms :) The very end of them in Nakameguro.
When dawn broke we were still in the lounges, fortunately the one we were in did not have windows so we could not see how entirely bright it was outside until we came outside. We were able to leave and be back to Tokyo station by the 6:50 train. I was back at home and in bed (after a shower) and asleep by about 9. I slept until 3 and woke myself up - rather easily actually and then went to the grocery store. I bought food to make a great dinner last night. I made steak, brown rice, and caprese salad - yum mozzarella cheese!!! I was in bed around 9 and painted my nails while watching Mama Mia. I am going to watch the other half of Mama Mia tonight after dinner and perhaps watch another movie...

Hope you enjoyed my adventures from this weekend!! I know I did. I am getting more and more ideas for when people visit! It is really fun getting to know a city. I would love to move into Tokyo for a year - it would be amazing I believe. Until next time, I will be studying Japanese, eating good food, teaching English, and having an enkai on Friday night - more stories to come as always!